Missile adoption could help decide the competition between automatic-gun cruisers and ships carrying 12-inch weapons. An eight- or 9.2-inch automatic-gun ship is proposed as the easier platform for combining guns and missiles. The reason is the difficulty of isolating missile equipment from gunfire vibration and shock. A 12-inch broadside creates a different engineering burden, so this forecast depends on missiles actually reaching service.
Notable Point · 43:13-43:57
Missile equipment could favour cruisers with smaller main guns
Gunfire shock provides a possible engineering advantage for automatic eight- or 9.2-inch cruisers in the missile era.